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The Zodiac Chronicles
The Zodiac Chronicles is a expansive series conceptualized and written by Celeste CrystalWing. The series is composed of seven novels and one book of short stories in relation.The genres range from high fantasy, contemporary fantasy, mythical fantasy, urban fantasy and magical girl, with romance and action in most of the books. Developmental History Conceptualization and Origin While still a writer of fanfictions, Celeste CrystalWing conceived an idea for a new story attached to the anime series, Tokyo Mew Mew . In it, a young girl is discovered to be the sixth Mew in the series, and became increasingly more important as the story grew. However, such a character started to become unrealistic for the original franchise and regarded as a "Mary-sue" by Celeste herself, and was given her own storyline with a different team and in a different location. About this time, Celeste became increasingly more ingrossed in her chosen religion, Wicca. Letting it influence her writing, her imagination started to run wild and the country of Gaia was created in response to a question, "what if there was a place of only Paganism?" As such, the main character, Madeleine Grace Milović and her companions recieved different Pagan religions and names of goddesses based on their respective Element. This story evolved and took a life of its own and eventually became known as the Apostle Series. Legend of King Arthur One of the deurtagonists, Anendis, had largly been undeveloped at this point. Originally called "one of the Seven Generals" by the author, Anendis was also described as having a very "dragon-like personality". Though reluctant to give the name to him, Celeste eventually relented and gave the name "Pendragon" to Anendis after discovering the connection to the legend of King Arthur. Deciding to research the infamous legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Celeste started to connect many aspects of the story to Paganism. After reading about how Arthur was taken to Avalon by three women and connecting such a thing to the triple aspects of the Goddess, the author took that as a metaphor for Arthur searching for the Pagan ways of the Goddess. Seeing the search for the Holy Grail and Excalibur also as metaphors, Celeste spun a story together about a young knight who wishes to go back to the original Pagan ways when Christianity was on the rise, taking many who still honored the Old Ways with him to a new world, developing Otherworld. Not knowing how to make Arthur king, Celeste created the royal dragon family and made Guinevere Vanora Pendragon Queen-Regent with Arthur as King-Consort, the first to make this arrangment. Divine Zodiac Early on in the conceptualization, Elen had been perceived as a goddess, eventually deciding on naming her "Aquarius" because it means "bearer of water" and expanded it to mean "bearer of life". Eventually, with her facination with religions, the Divine Zodiac was created which was also based on her own edited version of the "Wiccan Creation Story". Platonic Connections After watching the TV show Touch , Celeste began to research sacred geometry, particularly the Platonic Solids. Associating them with her own religious beliefs, Celeste also identified the Platonic Solids with her main characters in the Apostles, then with the Zodiac Deities, and finally with the Zodiac Chronicles overall. The Priestess Series and Short Stories asdfghjkl;' Setting The setting for the majority of the Zodiac Chronicles is in Otherworld, a fictionalized dimension based on Earth, with most major events happening in a country called Artio. For the first two Apostle books, the setting is on Earth with a ficitonalized island country called Gaia. Themes The overall theme in the Chronicles is having faith in yourself, in others and the path you've chosen. In the argument of nature vs. nurture, nurture plays a more pivitol role in the story. Another theme is looking beneath the surface of a situation to find out the underlying truth. Motifs Platonic Solids The Platonic Solids are used to symbolize the five most powerful deities in the Zodiac Chronicles beneath Aquarius herself. Together, they form Metatron's Cube which is considered the most powerful Goddess symbol. It's the religion's symbol and is often used to decorate govermental leader's palaces, jewelry, with the same for religious leader's temples and clothing of Otherworld. The Platonic Solids also decorate the novel's covers with their corresponding elements. Zodiac Chronicles Books 'Searching For Arc' Searching For: The Blessed Cauldron Searching For: The Blessed Sword 'Priestess Arc' Phoenix of Avalon Daughters of Artemis 'Apostles Arc' The Apostles: Merry Meet The Apostles: Merry Part The Apostles: Merry Meet Again 'Short Stories' Related Works Dragon Priestesses Influences Legends and fariy tales have played a large role in influencing the story. Anime, specifically the Magical Girl genre, had a pronounced influence on story, especially in the case of the Apostles Arc. Paganism Mists of Avalon Characters |-|Searching For= Arthur Uther Pendragon|link=Arthur Uther Pendragon Guinevere Vanora Pendragon|link=Guinevere Vanora Pendragon |-|Priestess= Lyra Karine du Lac|link=Lyra Karine du Lac Francesca|link=Francesca |-|The Apostles= Madeleine Grace Milović '''|link=Madeleine Grace Milović '''Salacia Jordan Sonnen|link=Salacia Jordan Sonnen |-|Short Stories= Madeleine Grace Milović '''|link=Madeleine Grace Milović '''Anendis Uther Pendragon|link=Anendis Uther Pendragon Trivia Category:Zodiac Chronicles